While authorities have ruled out additional suspects in reference to the New Orleans attack, they’re still investigating any possible connection between the incident and the explosion of the Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas.
The attacks occurred inside hours of one another on New Year’s Day.
Federal officials said the investigation continues to be in its early stages and no conclusions ought to be drawn at the moment, but each suspects had experience in the U.S. military and served at the identical base in North Carolina.
“At this time, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” Christopher Raia, deputy director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said at a news conference Thursday.
In New Orleans, feds investigated whether a person who drove into revelers on Bourbon Street and killed greater than a dozen people had accomplices, but officials said they found no accomplices and that the attacker acted alone.
Investigators found two explosives in fridges in New Orleans’ French Quarter. According to the FBI, surveillance footage shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar placing items in the world in the hours before the attack.
Law enforcement sources told The Times the devices appeared to be homemade pipe bombs with nails. The devices didn’t turn off.
A barrier may be seen on Royal Street after a vehicle plowed into New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans’ French Quarter on Wednesday.
(George Walker IV/Associated Press)
Jabbar, 42, drove a rented pickup truck with an Islamic State flag from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Authorities said he drove his truck onto the sidewalk early on New Year’s Day, dodging a police automotive positioned to block vehicular traffic.
Authorities said 14 people were killed and 35 injured in the attack. Authorities said police killed Jabbar after he got out of his truck and opened fire on officers.
Law enforcement officials told The Times that Jabbar was wearing a bulletproof vest. After the shooting, investigators found a handgun and an AR-style rifle, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on lively duty in human resources and data technology, and deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. In 2015, he transferred to the Army Reserve, which he left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
Raia said Thursday that the FBI had discovered five videos that Jabbar posted online hours before the attack in which he stated he had joined Islamic State earlier this summer. In one video, Jabbar explained that he had originally planned to harm his family and friends, but “he was afraid that the news headlines would not focus on the war between believers and non-believers,” Raia said.
“It was an act of terrorism,” Raia said. “It was a deliberate and evil act.”
In a YouTube video, Jabbar said he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in human resources and data technology in the military. He described himself as a property manager and real estate agent.
Officials are combing through data on three phones and two laptops connected to Jabbar to determine if there are another potential leads.
The FBI can be investigating the circumstances surrounding the explosion of fuel canisters and firework mortars loaded onto the Cybertruck’s platform outside President-elect Donald Trump’s estate near the famous Las Vegas Strip, resulting in the death of the motive force and 7 bystanders with minor injuries, officials said.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said authorities imagine the motive force was 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, but cautioned that the motive force’s body was burned beyond recognition and he couldn’t be positively identified. However, McMahill told a news conference that military ID, bank cards and a passport with Livelsberger’s name on it were found in the vehicle.
Police reported that before the automotive exploded, the motive force himself suffered a gunshot wound to the top.
McMahill said the truck was rented in Colorado. An electronic license plate reader recorded the Cybertruck’s arrival in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The truck drove up and down the Strip for about an hour before entering a covered driveway in front of the Trump hotel and exploding about 17 seconds later, McMahill said.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that a surveillance camera captured a vehicle driving past the client service department on the Trump hotel an hour before the incident. Sources say video footage of the explosion shows fireworks exploding in the course of the fire.
An image from a video released by law enforcement shows items in the bed of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
(Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via Associated Press)
According to an Army statement and his LinkedIn profile, Livelsberger was from the Colorado Springs area and was a member of the elite Green Beret special forces unit.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar served in the Army Ft. Bragg, now referred to as Ft. Liberty, North Carolina, however it is unclear whether or not they served at the identical time or in the identical unit, McMahill said.
Federal authorities said Thursday they were still trying to determine the motive for the Las Vegas explosion.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Livelsberger began working as a U.S. Army Special Forces operations manager in 2006 and moved to the role of distant and autonomous systems manager two months ago. Authorities said he was also previously a member of the National Guard and was on military leave on the time of the explosion.
On his Facebook page, Livelsberger criticized the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021, calling it “the greatest foreign policy failure in U.S. history.”
“Bet Bolton got a sizable sum from the DNC and other slimy donors to publish the book,” he wrote in a comment, referring to former US National Security Advisor John Bolton and his memoirs. Livelsberger, accused of promoting conspiracy theories, responded: “It’s not a conspiracy when it’s pretty obvious the guy made money off the Democrats.”
On Thursday morning, FBI officials in Denver wrote in a press release to X that they were searching a Colorado Springs residence in reference to the Las Vegas explosion.
Investigators haven’t yet determined how the fireworks and the gas and camping fuel canisters in the back of the vehicle ignited. McMahill said two semi-automatic weapons purchased by Livelsberger on Dec. 30 were also found in the vehicle.
Investigators are looking into whether the motive force intentionally targeted certainly one of Trump’s properties using a Tesla vehicle. Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, is a detailed adviser to the president-elect.
Federal investigators are following leads each at home and abroad, executing search warrants and interviewing witnesses, said Spencer Evans, FBI special agent in Las Vegas.
“There are literally investigative efforts going on all over the world,” Evans said. “At this particular time… we want to concentrate on what we all know and what we do not know. “We are not indifferent to the fact that there is a Tesla vehicle in front of the Trump building, but at this point we have no information that clearly tells us or suggests that it is because of this particular ideology or any reasons behind it.”
The Cybertruck involved in the Las Vegas incident and the Ford pickup used in the New Orleans attack were rented through Turo, a platform where cars may be rented directly from vehicle owners.
An organization spokesman said Turo is cooperating with law enforcement but doesn’t imagine any of the tenants “have a criminal history that would identify them as a security risk.”
